Moonripple's Journey
Prologue A plump, soft-furred kittypet raced through puddles, getting all muddy as she carried her poor kit far, far away from her Twoleg nest. A bell jingled on her collar, yet she didn't care about the weather as most kittypets did. Soon she found a safe place underneath a bush at the edge of Twolegplace. She placed her kit there and sobbed. "Goodbye, Puddle," she sobbed. "Mama Splash is gonna miss you. But I'm never gonna see you again. Hopefully a nice Clan will pick you up. If not... waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" And with that, Splash raced away. Puddle mewled pitifully day after day, moon after moon, not knowing that her mother was never coming back. She grew hungrier and hungrier and weaker and weaker every day that passed. Two moons had passed since that stormy day when Splash left Puddle under the bush. Chapter One Puddle heard pawsteps approaching. Not caring if it wasn't Splash, she mewled as loud as she could. The pawsteps grew faster and faster, closer and closer, until two cats saw Puddle mewling under the bush. "Eh," the smaller of the two snarled. He had tangled black fur that was glossy, and his right forepaw was white. His claws were reinforced with dog's teeth, and he wore a purple collar that was studded with the teeth of cats and dogs. "It's just some weakling kittypet. I could kill it with one blow." The bigger one is more difficult to describe, I guess. The back of his head and ears were black, along with his back, most of his tail, and his flanks. There was a scar above his left eye and a gray band of fur that went up his nose to the back of his head. The rest of him was white, and he had a white tail tip. Like the smaller one, he had his claws reinforced with dogs teeth, and a collar with red, yellow, black, blue, and pink stripes that was also studded with dog and cat teeth. "But Scourge, it has a collar," he protested. Scourge just ignored the bigger one. "Bone, I'm killing it," he told Bone. He stepped up to Puddle and reared up, claws unsheathed, but then he felt something. He couldn't kill it, he couldn't! This cat had smooth, not-glossy black fur and a white left forepaw. He had found the she-cat he had been looking for all those moons, someone who matched him. Instead, he tore off the bell and pendant off of Puddle's collar in one neat blow, and brought her back to their alley. He set her down on some old news-tellers, and told Bone, "Rearrange for this 'Puddle' to be renamed Moonkit." Scourge called for a dark gray queen with a light gray muzzle, who was already nursing a white she-kit with darker white patches, a white she-kit, a light gray tom, and a gray tom with a black head and black rings. "Can you take one more, Minty?" he asked. "I feel like Cloudy, Snowflake, Icicle, and Sniff are already too much for you." "It's fine," Minty reassured him. "I've dealt with seven kits before. Five kits is nothing compared to seven." A gray tom with a light gray face stepped in to the scene. "Minty, what are you doing?" he asked sharply. "Willie," Minty told him, "this poor kit has no mother nor father. Her name is Moonkit. I am going to raise her as my own." Willie walked off in impatience. Chapter Two "Gotchya!" Moonkit exclaimed as she pinned Sniff down. "Oh no, you don't!" Sniff teased as he wriggled out from under her paws. "Now I've got you!" Sniff pounced and clawed her back. Moonkit squealed. "Sniff!" Minty exclaimed. "Come back to the nursery at once. You are not allowed to claw your sister, especially if she's squealing." "But Moonkit's ''not ''my sister!" Sniff moaned. "Blood relationship or no blood relationship," Minty sighed. "No clawing other kits, especially if they're squealing." "But Mama, I wanna be one of Scourge's guards!" Sniff groaned. "No," Minty snapped. Just then, Scourge came out of the shadows. "Very nice work, Sniff," he said. "Although I would be happier if you play-battled Icicle. Moonkit is... special to me. Moonkit, come with me." "Why?" Moonkit asked. "Just do as I say," Scourge sighed. At the place were Scourge usually resided, he called a meeting of all the cats of BloodClan. "We have a very important reason to be here today," he announced. "Moonkit, Cloudy, Snowflake, Icicle, Sniff, come up here please." Moonkit, Cloudy, Snowflake, Icicle, and Sniff came up to Scourge. "From this moment on, these kits of six moons will be called Moonpaw, Cloudypaw, Snowflakepaw, Iciclepaw, and Sniffpaw. I have ceremonies that will only be performed from now on. I, now Scourgesplash will teach Moonpaw, Bone, now Boneclaw, will teach Cloudypaw, Willie, now Lightface, will teach Snowflakepaw, Minty, now Mintyheart, will teach Iciclepaw, and... and... hmm... ah! Brick, now Redstone, will teach Sniffpaw. Ice, you are Iceheart. Snake, you are Snakehiss. And so on." ---